The essays are devoted to the four "eights" in Czech history: 1918, when the Republic was founded; 1938, when its western parts were handed over to Hitler; 1948, when the Communists took power; and 1968, when an effort to create "socialism with a human face" was crushed by Soviet tanks.

Czechoslovakia, Norman Stone; the origins of Czechoslovakia (Russia - the home front), Josef Kalvoda; France, Britain, Italy and the independence of Czechoslovakia, Harry Hanak; the United States and Czechoslovak independence, Victor S. Mamatey; thoughts on the meaning of Utopia, Karel Macha; the nationality question in Czechoslovakia and the 1938 Munich agreement, Ian Mlynarik; could we have fought? - the "Munich complex" in Czech policies and Czech thinking, Karel Bartosek; President Edvard Benes and the Czechoslovak crises of 1938 and 1948, Edward Taborsky; Czechoslovakia's February 1948, Karel Kaplan; Czechoslovak communists and the state (1928-48), Jaques Rupnik; making and writing history (Edvard Benes 1943-48), Erazim Kohak; the Prague spring - twenty years after, Milan Hauner; the Czechoslovak economic reform of the sixties, Jiri Kosta; the Prague spring as a social movement, Zdenek Strmiska; the Jews in Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1968, Erich Kulka; the vicissitudes of the Catholic church in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1988, Karel Skalicky.